Tooth replacement pattern in maxillary dentition of basal Neoceratopsia Kyo TANOUE, Daqing LI and Hailu YOU Bull. Kitakyushu Mus. Nat. Hist. Hum. Hist., Ser. A, 10: 123―127, March 31, 2012 Tooth replacement pattern in maxillary dentition of basal Neoceratopsia 1 2 3 Kyo TANOUE , Daqing LI and Hailu YOU 1Department of Earth System Science, Faculty of Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan 2Gansu Geological Museum, Chengguan District, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730010, People's Republic of China 3Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, People's Republic of China Corresponding author: Kyo TANOUE (E-mail:
[email protected]) (Received September 30, 2011; accepted February 1, 2012) ABSTRACT ― Maxillary dentition of basal neoceratopsians was examined to understand the tooth replacement pattern in the early stage of neoceratopsian evolution. The replacement tooth developed on the lingual side of the functional tooth. For the replacement tooth to grow apically, resorption of the root and eventually the base of crown of the functional tooth was necessary. Having only one replacement tooth for each tooth position and involving resorption of the functional tooth for it to erupt, tooth replacement of basal neoceratopsians was inefficient compared to ceratopsids, the derived neoceratopsians. KEY WORDS: Maxillary dentition, Tooth replacement, Basal Neoceratopsia INTRODUCTION patterns were also different. However, previous studies of the erupting teeth have concentrated on descriptions of the tooth The Ceratopsia is one of the dominant herbivorous dinosaur crown morphology when the functional teeth are already worn. taxa in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems of Asia and western Discoveries of both complete and fragmentary skulls of North America (DODSON et al., 2004; YOU and DODSON, 2004).